Page 45 of Bottoms Up
Mitch wanted to see what we’d worked on, so it was back to the woodshed, but in the tent this time rather than driving back down to Main Street. We all wear headphones when we practice outside, so the neighbors don’t hear anything.
Mitch watched us run through it once, looked at Davy, and said, “I need a ladder.”
“Then you should go get one,” Will said. “There’s a six-foot stepladder in the pool house, and a taller one in the garage.”
Davy had started to stand, clearly going to get it for Mitch, but he relaxed back in his chair and focused on Will rather than Mitch.
Mitch stared at Will, clearly unhappy, and I said, “I can help you with it, if you think you’ll have trouble.”
I probably shouldn’t have inserted myself into the drama, but I did, so I wasn’t surprised when Mitch glared at me and stomped out of the tent.
“Thank you,” Will told me. “None of you have ever tried to boss Davy around, but Mitch…” He shrugged. “Davy’s mine to boss around. He could’ve asked me if I could send Davy to get it, and I would’ve, but he doesn’t get to boss my boy around.”
“I get it,” I told him. “We all look out for Davy when you aren’t around. Doesn’t happen often, but when it does, he’s taken care of.”
“Absolutely,” said Hailey. “He takes care of us too, though. That’s the way families are supposed to work.”
Family. Julian had explained how part of the oath he took, that the wording Marco used meant he was oathing him into not just the coterie, but into Marco’s inner circle. His innersanctum.
If I ever become a vampire, I’ll have to oath myself to Marco. It hadn’t really occurred to me before. Not like this, the weight of pledging your very soul to the Master Vampire, to the coterie. My experience with the oath I’d taken to keepThe Secrettold me how true the oath would be. How absolute. Final.
Julian had explained that some are oathed in specifically as warriors, and the oath involves fighting to the death, if necessary, to defend the coterie. But I’m not a fighter, much less a warrior or soldier.
What could I bring to a clique of vampires? It isn’t like there are traveling minstrels anymore.
I shook my head. I needed to stay focused. I could spiral into vampire drama and angst later.
“I have an idea of how to showcaseThrouple,” I told them. “We should do the lighting in the same colors as the sunset, and I think maybe Will should sing parts of it, or possibly just the ending,a cappella. The rest of us can either back off to give himthe stage, at least visually, or we can frame him somehow, with our instruments clearly at rest.”
“We can play around with that,” Mitch said, easily managing the stepladder. “Let’s polish this one before we move to the next.” He rotated the ladder to vertical, opened it, wiggled it around, climbed it, and said, “From the top. Get’em started, Mikey.”
Chapter 17
Julian
I hadn’t understood how going on vacation was going to fix anything, but Silver and Marco had been right. The change in location helped, but even more, just the energy of me and Silver without anyone else around changedeverything. I can’t explain how it changed things, but we wereusagain. The energy of lovers, rather than owner and owned.
Marco is friends with the Master of New Orleans and got us an invitation to visit as tourists. Our first stop was an ancient mansion in the Garden District, where Augustus and Blaze met with us personally, and I gave the Master Vampire the bottle of expensive whiskey Marco had asked someone to bring to me from our gifting storage area.
We were only with the Master Vampire and slayer around fifteen minutes, and then our driver took us to the French Quarter, to one of those old historic mansions that’ve been turned into a museum. It isn’t a B&B or a hotel, but there are sunproof vampire rooms for rent, and staying here put us in the heart of party central.
We were just here for one night, though, and Silver got completely and totally drunk. It was a lot of fun, going from bar to bar, playing with the musicians, dancing with strangers. She looked totally different than she does on stage when she’s a girl, her hair in a ponytail, makeup done all cutesy rather thanchic rocker-girl, but I still worried someone might recognize her. Thankfully, no one did.
When I got her back to our tiny little underground room, she face-planted onto the bed and crashed. It was after three in the morning, so once I got her under the covers with a bottled water and her salt solution on the table beside her, I played video games a couple of hours before I locked myself into the hidey-hole before the sun took me.
When I rose, I found a note that she’d gone out exploring and to text her when I woke.
I’m up. I hope you’re safe.
Completely safe. I had a killer hangover this morning so I went out for food and aspirin, then decided to explore some of these old buildings, so I dropped by the room to leave you a note. I wish we had longer here but I don’t want to miss the show in Vegas tonight. I’m finishing up this tour and then I’ll head back
No, stay out and explore the city. No need for both of us to be trapped in this tiny little room.
I’ll grab some food before I head in. You need or want anything?
Just Silver, but I didn’t want to rush her, so I texted,I’m good, and I’m happy you’re enjoying yourself.
She returned nearly an hour later, loaded down with food. She ate and talked, and showed me pictures on her phone of the places she’d been, along with the stories the tour guides had told. We left as soon as the sun went down, headed for the airport, and climbed onto Heather’s plane.
